In the wake of the overwhelming success of Nirvana’s Nevermind, major labels in the early/mid-’90s began signing any and every cool indie band they could in hopes of a similar payoff. One such outfit was Jawbox, a Washington, D.C., post-punk quartet that had issued two promising albums on the indier-than-thou Dischord label. The band—guitarist/vocalist J. Robbins, guitarist Bill Barbot, bassist Kim Coletta and drummer Zachary Barocas—signed to Atlantic and released the excellent For Your Own Special Sweetheart in 1994. (Though MAGNET named it the fifth-best album that year, Sweetheart was far from a commercial hit.) In 1996, Jawbox issued a slicker self-titled LP, which also failed to catch on beyond the indie-rock crowd, and the band broke up the following year. Dischord has just reissued For Your Own Special Sweetheart with three bonus tracks, and to celebrate, Jawbox reunited for a one-off performance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday. Barbot is also guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with him.
Barbot: I loved White Denim on the strength of their first EP, but now, digging a little more on the Interwebs, I unearthed this gem: the “soundtrack” to a painting video by the Modern Plow Collective. Now, I can’t speak to the awesomeness of the painting—I think it’s pretty freaking great, but I’m no painter—but I can speak to the awesomeness of White Denim’s Magic Band-ish take on how one makes music to paint by. I’ve been wondering who was going to show up first dripping with the essence of “Doc At The Radar Station,” and even though Roads To Space Travel gave it a go a few years back, White Denim seems to have got it in spades. Doesn’t hurt that they can also pull off the MC5 smashing into ZZ Top in the rock ‘n’ roll Large Hadron Collider without sounding too much like the White Stripes. (Thank God for that; we don’t need any more of those, thanks.)
3 replies on “Jawbox’s Own Special Sweetheart: White Denim’s Painting Soundtrack For The Modern Plow Collective”
Bobby Weiss initiated the project in my garage; drawing, directing Henry and taking photos – with Michael Hammett and I drawing. A three day session in my winter studio (pre-ike garage) with 3 sheets of paper and 3 artist. Later, Arron and Bobby put it all together in NY. Collab with White Denim piece couldn’t be better. Evan Nayfa digitally painted 3 versions of the “Leslie Head” paintings in the background and gave 2 versions to Bobby and me for us to play with. I think we sill have the drawings somewhere.
It was a pleasure to work with White Denim on this video. I hope we can do much more in the future. The painting animations are great because they capture the fleeting moments that exist while a painting is being formed. The image ultimately could not exist without the prior detritus and pentamente that precedes the finished work.
Really cool – bookmarking this web-site for frequent check-ins